Perversas Intenções

One could certainly make the statement 'why should we care' about this film, and perhaps one should have posed that question to the director. Very little attention was paid, it seems, to anything which might endear any of this film's characters to the viewer. While the four female leads are intended to flutter between victim and villain as the story progresses, the performances ring hollow, contrived, and ultimately fall short of what I would hope started as a grand study of human sociology. Indeed this idea is suggested by their forced cooperation on a senior year project. Again, one is left with the feeling of too many tongs in the fire, and not enough hands to mind them.

While great pains are taken to show the villainy of Alicia Campbell (Mia Kirschner), the final upshot of all her ill deeds struck me as not only rediculous, but totally unfeasable, unattainable, and illogical. The broad strokes used to bring conclusion to the film failed to deflty weave together the many loose threads, instead preferring to shelack them to the table in an effort to prevent their fluttering away. It was nice to see the sidekick from "The Craft" continuing to make a name for herself as an out of control socialite.

Thankfully this film was not terribly long, although the music was surprisingly good. I'm still not sure why the director felt it was necessary to pepper the film with gratuitous breast shots, increasing in frequency as the film progress. My only thought is they began to suspect the film was failing as a concept piece, and chose the lowest common denominator for salvation.

Whatever your take on it, this film is still moderately entertaining, even if the ideology behind it has been beaten like a narc at a biker rally.

I know this film got terrible reviews and I would be hard pressed to say they were wrong but the truth is its kind of fun on a silly trashy level. First off Mia Kirshner is always good (Even here!) and Taye Diggs is totally unbelievable as a campus cop with or without the accent, it comes and goes. And there is sex, drugs, and nudity. Dominique Swain gets naked here and engages in lesbian sex. I also enjoyed the use of sound and music as its not used to be obnoxious but rather to enhance the mood of the scene. Is it junk? Sure! but I had a fun time and went with it.

I think that those who rated this movie as a really bad movie just expected to much. I mean this was released direct to home video, so that should say something right out of the video store. This movie is what it is, a simple mystery movie, a simple click movie about taking in a nobody and making her a somebody and then regretting your decision when it comes back to haunt you. Towards the end I really felt sad for Hadley (Meredith Monroe) and could totally see why she did what she did. She built her lab partner, with good intentions mind you, from nothing into a resultant someone, and watched basically as she took her life away from her, all not meaning to do so....

Now would this movie have made it in the theaters? No, I don't think so. But considering the usual quality of movies that go directly to video, this is one of the better ones.

Bello

Alicia Campbell is a good girl. Coming from a poor family this sweet, hard-working girl is focused on her education, determined to make something of her life. Hadley Ashton is a bad girl. Coming from a rich family this cold, bitchy girl doesn't want to work, she expects to have life handed to her on a silver platter. The two girls attend one of those colleges where the college runs the town. The college president makes this perfectly clear when the acting sheriff turns up on campus to investigate how sweet little Alicia ended up comatose in a hospital bed, fighting for her life. The president makes it very clear that he expects there to be no actual investigating done in this investigation. But Sheriff Artie Bonner keeps digging.

The movie unfolds largely in flashbacks as we see the oh-so-innocent Alicia lose her innocence which leads to her potentially losing her life. She and Hadley are paired up on a school project. Alicia is a social nobody, Hadley is one of the campus queens. Hadley and her rich, snotty friends take Alicia under their wing. Alicia starts to change. Not so innocent after all perhaps. Drugs and sex, and more drugs and more sex and what exactly has Alicia gotten herself into? Eventually she overdoses on cocaine. Accident? Hadley and her friends would like you to believe that. The college president would definitely like you to believe that. The sheriff does not believe that.

The movie sets Hadley and her two main cohorts, Sidney and Julianne, up as potential suspects, giving them each motivations for perhaps wanting to be rid of Alicia. Some other fringe characters get involved too but the focus is clearly on this gang of three. Truth be told this is not a particularly mysterious mystery. Those watching will probably put all the pieces of the puzzle together long before the sheriff does. The hint of obviousness drains away some of the drama but that doesn't necessarily make New Best Friend a bad movie. It's far from the greatest thing you'll ever see but it's reasonably compelling. Trashy but entertainingly so. Mia Kirshner turns in a very good performance in playing Alicia. The character evolves, not necessarily for the best, and Kirshner nails the transformation. You believe her as the sweet, innocent girl we first meet. And you believe her as the girl who ultimately proves to be something else entirely. The rest of the cast is not quite up to Kirshner's standard. Meredith Monroe is a little flat in playing ice queen Hadley, neither Dominique Swain nor Rachel True are particularly memorable in playing our other two would-be murderesses. And playing the sheriff Taye Diggs just appears to be going through the motions. A flawed movie to be sure but there are enough good things here, Kirshner most notably, to make it a decent viewing experience. Not a movie you'd regret missing if you didn't see it. But not a movie you'd regret seeing if you did.

This is the story of the investigation of a drug overdose by a college senior, played by Mia Kirshner. Did her "friends" from an exclusive rich girl sorority have anything to do with her untimely OD? Unfortunately, Alicia can't help explain things because she's in a near-death coma for the entire movie, so the story is told in flashback.

Kirshner's character came from the wrong side of the tracks, so she would ordinarily have no business associating with the well-to-do sorority girls played by Meredith Monroe, Dominique Swain and Rachel True (looking much like the "Clueless" trio updated to college age). But a chance sociology assignment throws her in with the rich set, and the less fortunate girl spends much of her time fretting about financial aid to pay for law school.

The cause of drug overdose is the central mystery. Was Kirshner's character not the "innocent, goody-goody" poor girl that she was made out to be, and did she bring this fate upon herself? Or did the rich girls have it out for this supposed "friend" but rapid rival (for both boys' and girls' attention), and did they push her into the dangerous situation? The audience may come to feel that it is a combination of both factors that led to accident -- or was it a crime?

I know that this movie is not being well-received by critics, but I think that's because the reviewers are taking it much too seriously. (The movie takes itself a little seriously as well, but that doesn't mean that you have to.) Think "Wild Things" with less intentional humor -- the laughs in "New Best Friend" do not seem to be intended by the director/writer. I would especially recommend it for boys or girls under 17 -- sneak into the theater if you have to; it could become a cult classic by the time you reach college....